DESCRIPTION: The Analytical Core facility will provide support fort the individual projects by developing new approaches to analyze antisense oligonucleotides and plasmid DNA. The emphasis of the Analytical Core is on quantifying both the amount and the metabolism of these agents in plasma and tissue as part of pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies. In addition, the core will serve as a support site for each project to develop confocal fluorescence microscopy experiments. The primary means of quantifying antisense oligonucleotide metabolism will be CE. Analysis of plasmid DNA metabolism will make use of real- time PCR.